The Reason

“What then explains the continuing belief in the value of bombing, invading, and occupying foreign countries? I find I cannot easily explain it, except perhaps in terms of post-imperial delusions of grandeur combined with an arrogance brought about by the West’s victory in the Cold War and by the West’s belief in the universal supremacy of its own supposed value system. The combination of untrammelled military supremacy and a total belief in their own moral superiority has created an incentive to act which some find too tempting to resist, despite the fact that acting has been shown to fail again and again.”

This is one of the best paragraphs I’ve read yet in succinctly explaining our problem in “The West.” The arrogance of Fukuyamanism (if I may be so bold as to add an -ism onto the name of a guy I don’t like) has certainly contributed – but in America you also have to remember our military-industrial complex. With profit above all else, you have to keep a justification for those industries and their profits. And if that justification is that our bombs only ever kill bad guys, then that’s what it will be.